Timepiece
by LizBee
Summary: Unscrupulous temporal engineers and a major breach in the laws of time lead Rose Tyler and the first Romana to join forces to rescue the Doctor. Both of him.
1. Chapter 1

**Summary**: Unscrupulous temporal engineers and a major breach in the laws of time lead Rose Tyler and the first Romana to join forces to rescue the Doctor. Both of him.  
**Rated**: PG-13  
**Notes**: Start the year out right with some Romana fic. Beta by Branwyn. 

**Timepiece**  
by LizBee

**One  
**

It was the perfect day, and it was never going to end. Rose stood in the centre of the markets of Temnein and looked up. Around her was a vast alien crowd: merchants, customers, dancers, travellers. And above and around them were the raging winds of a gas giant, held at bay by a bubble in time. It was like watching a storm through the window, seeing trees uprooted while you were warm and secure inside.

It wasn't safe here -- Rose watched with interest as a small child (at least, she assumed it was a child) picked the pocket of a passing alien -- but it was amazing.

She didn't even mind -- much -- that the Doctor had left her alone while he ran off to gawk at a computer or something. "Try not to get kidnapped," he'd called as he disappeared into the crowd, "I'll be back to rescue you later."

So far she'd gone two hours without being kidnapped, and the little pickpocket had gotten a clout around the ear when he went for her purse. Score one for the stupid apes. Only she was starting to wonder when he'd get back, because she'd all but exhausted this section of the marketplace, and didn't want to move on without letting him know where she was. She'd bought gifts for her mum, and a nice kind of crystal thing that was supposed to bring good luck, that she would hang in her room in the TARDIS. Now she was considering the alien fashions, but seriously, it was time to move on.

Abruptly she became aware of a change in the sound of a crowd. There was movement, heavy footsteps. Rose turned to see what was happening, but a hand closed around her shoulder and a woman's voice said, "Are you Rose?"

"Yes, but--"

"Run."

Instinct compelled Rose to obey.

"This'd better not be a kidnapping," she managed to say as they pushed through the crowds. On the edge of her vision, she could see uniformed figures behind them.

"The Doctor sent me."

And they were heading straight for the TARDIS. Rose reached for her key, but the woman reached into her white robe and withdrew one of her own. It hung on a chain, just like Rose's, and the door opened when she turned it.

"Hurry," the woman said, so Rose followed her in and closed the door, and watched in numb amazement as the stranger threw herself at the console, throwing levers and adjusting dials like she could pilot a TARDIS in her sleep.

And they were away.

"Who are you?" Rose demanded, catching her breath. "Where are we going, and what have you done with the Doctor?"

The woman looked at her. She was tall and beautiful, dark curls and fair skin, and she was looking at Rose like she'd just opened an unwanted gift.

"My name is Romana," she said, "and for now, we're making a strategic retreat. As for the Doctor, he manages to get into trouble quite well without my help." She looked around, frowning. "I see he hasn't lost his love for amateur repairs. Can't say I like the colours. They're in trouble, you see," she turned her attention back to Rose, "which isn't unusual, but it is serious."

"'They'."

"The Doctor," said Romana, as if explaining to a slow child. "In two of his incarnations. It violates the laws of time, but I suppose that's the least of our worries right now."

"And you're ... what, a time agent?"

Romana snorted. "Hardly." And then, like it was something you could just announce casually, she said, "I'm a Time Lord."

"Liar," said Rose. She could feel her heart pounding against her chest. Her palms were sweaty.

"Well, I do have some exams to take, but that's hardly significant."

"No," said Rose. "He's the last one. The last of the Time Lords," she added, just to make it clear. "Everyone knows that. They have, like, legends about it. So you can't just come in here and expect me to believe you." She was backing towards the door, which was stupid, but she wanted as much space between her and that -- woman -- as possible. "So who are you really? And why do you need me, because it wasn't to get into the TARDIS."

Romana looked slightly ill. Kind of like -- and Rose didn't want to be having this thought -- but kind of like someone might look if you'd just told them they were meant to be extinct. And suddenly she seemed much younger, and less sure of herself.

"They don't prepare you for this at university," she said. "'Don't cross time streams', they say, and leave the rest up to your imagination. Well, the punishments seem real enough..." She was approaching slowly, holding out her wrists. "Look," she said gently, "two heartbeats."

Rose felt them fluttering beneath her fingers, and it was just like the Doctor only maybe a bit faster, but she said, "You can't be the only ones in the universe to have two hearts."

"But as a symbol," said Romana, "you have to agree it's compelling."

"The Doctor," said Rose.

"He's in the laboratories beneath Temnein. Both of him. The Temnons will do their experiments, and then they'll hook the Doctor up to their temporal phase devices. They're partially organic, you see, and that bubble is hugely complex. The Temnons have been stealing time travellers for years. Hitchhikers, vagrants, the ones who won't be missed. But a Time Lord? Two?"

"It's like Christmas," said Rose.

"I don't know what that is," said Romana, "but it was not an opportunity to pass up." She began to pace. "I don't understand why he went back there in his future incarnation. Unless he's mad, of course. Or senile--"

Rose let that one pass, and just said, "He didn't say anything about having been there before. Just that he'd heard about it. He thought it'd be fun."

"Fun."

"Or, you know, an experience."

"Travelling with the Doctor is certainly that."

And suddenly Rose wanted to sit her done for a nice girly chat about the Doctor, and where Romana was from, and what was it like to be a Time Lord, and all the rest. But Romana had closed up again, going all cold and elegant once more. She turned away, saying something about needing to think, and walked out of the console room.

Rose let her go. Romana probably had a lot to think about, what with accidentally finding out her whole species was going to be wiped out. Rose bit her lip, and made a mental list of topics to avoid. Daleks. Time War. Lonely god. That time she caught the Doctor dancing to Elvis songs in his shorts.

And at the same time, she opened up the TARDIS records. They were sketchy, highly unreliable and difficult to use -- for her, at least. But eventually she found a mention of Romana, or at least, the jettisoning of her room, which was good enough. As long as she didn't have a crazy alien serial killer lurking in the TARDIS, Rose figured it couldn't be that bad a day.

Then, figuring that enough time had passed, she went looking for Romana.

She found her in the kitchen, drinking green tea and staring into space.

"So you found everything okay?" Rose said. Stupid, but domestic and comforting.

"Yes," said Romana. "Thank you." 

Sitting before her on the table was what Rose could only think of as an alien wand. Romana caressed it absently, frowning.

"What's that?" Rose asked.

"Duty."

"Oh."

"The Temnons will be quite happy to feed us into their machines if we give them a chance. You're less valuable, being a human, but you've travelled in time and been exposed to Time Lord technology. I barely escaped." Romana sipped her tea. "It was your Doctor who saved me. He told me to find you, take the TARDIS and get away, and damn the timeline." She sighed. "I can see he's only gotten worse with age."

"But we're going back for him, right?"

Romana looked at her like she was stupid. "Of course," she said. Rose relaxed slightly.

"Good," she said. "So ... do you have a plan?"

"Not yet," Romana admitted. "But I'm sure something will present itself."

The look in her eyes reminded Rose of the Doctor, which was worrying and reassuring all at once. Rose got up to make herself a cup of tea, and silently promised, _Don't worry, Doctor, we're on our way_.

_to be continued_


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary**: Unscrupulous temporal engineers and a major breach in the laws of time lead Rose Tyler and the first Romana to join forces to rescue the Doctor. Both of him.  
**Rated**: PG-13  
**Notes**: Beta this time by R. J. Anderson. Set after "Stones of Blood" (for Romana) and "Fear Her" (for Rose). 

**Timepiece**  
by LizBee

**Two**

Romana's planning process was quite different from the Doctor's. Slightly less chaos and hardly any screaming.

On the other hand, Rose thought, surveying the wardrobe room, it was much messier.

"Try this," Romana said, handing her a pile of black fabric. Unfolded, it was revealed as a uniform, although with more sparkly bits than Rose usually associated with that sort of thing.

"Let me guess," said Rose, "we're going to be, like, visiting dignitaries? And bully our way into the laboratories?"

Romana looked faintly crestfallen at having her thunder stolen, but she said, "That's essentially it, yes."

"Right." Rose examined the uniform again, then threw it aside and followed Romana further into the wardrobe room. "Thing is," she said, "visiting dignitaries in shiny uniforms are a bit ... showy."

Romana arched one thin eyebrow. "'Showy'?"

"You're thinking that if we make enough noise, they won't dare shoot us or hook us up to their machines, yeah?"

Romana nodded.

"But don't you think," Rose said, "that the Doctor hasn't tried that already?"

"And what," Romana asked with all appearance of sweetness, "do you propose?"

Rose shrugged. "One thing I've noticed is that no one ever pays attention to, like ... cleaning staff?"

Romana blinked. "Cleaners?"

"Or technicians?"

"Technicians."

"Or ... something."

Romana pursed her lips and tilted her head.

"You're right," she said eventually. "You're quite right." She reached into the back of a shelf of clothes, retrieved a pair of grey trousers and threw them at Rose. As Romana turned away to find clothes of her own, Rose thought she was smiling.

Romana was still smiling as she landed the TARDIS. She smiled as she told Rose they were in a storage bay for private space vehicles. She smiled as she booked them passage on an interstellar liner heading for Temnein. She smiled at the man who told them that the journey would take a day (he smiled too, and blushed a vivid green). She smiled as they were shown into their tiny berth that held little more than two narrow beds, a bathroom and a minibar.

"You think you're so clever, don't you?" said Rose.

"Yes," Romana said. She was brushing her hair. With Rose's brush.

"And modest, too."

"I've always thought false modesty was terribly unattractive."

"You and the Doctor must be a great pair," said Rose, lying back on her bed. "Going around the universe being cleverer than everyone. It's amazing you don't have people trying to kill you more often." She looked up. "So how'd you two get together, anyway? I know he's had a lot of people with him, but I never thought..." Rose trailed off, not sure what she was trying to ask.

Romana said, with a trace of smugness, "As far as I know, I'm the first Time Lord to travel with him."

"Oh. That must be nice."

"There was his granddaughter, of course, but she was unqualified."

Rose sat up slowly.

"And of course," Romana added, "he never talks about her."

"Right. Figures."

"I was sent to assist him with the search for something called the Key to Time." Romana put the hairbrush down and started twisting her hair into an elaborate knot. "And after we've found it ... I suppose ... I suppose," her voice faltered, "I shall go home and complete my studies."

"What? Just like that?"

"It would be irresponsible to stay."

"But you don't really believe that, do you?"

Romana looked away. "Of course I do," she said. "Of course ... one might make an irresponsible choice now and then."

"Yeah. One might."

"An excusable youthful error."

"Better than dropping out of school to shack up with Jimmy Stone."

"Who?"

So she filled Romana in on her short and uneventful life up to the moment the Doctor blew up Henriks (which Romana said was typical, and wasn't it sad when a person got too old to change), and Romana told her about going to university, until her voice lulled Rose to sleep.

Just before she lost consciousness altogether, she stirred herself to say, "You know, he's never even told me the name of your planet."

Silence. 

"Gallifrey," Romana said.

"Nice," said Rose, and then she did fall asleep.

She was woken by a shudder, and for a second thought the TARDIS had landed, before she sat up and remembered everything that had happened, and saw Romana -- wide awake -- in quiet, urgent conversation with someone at the door.

"What's happening?" she asked.

"The Temnein," said Romana grimly. "They're searching all incoming traffic for time travellers." She was throwing their things into the bag. "We need to get out of here."

_to be continued_


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary**: Unscrupulous temporal engineers and a major breach in the laws of time lead Rose Tyler and the first Romana to join forces to rescue the Doctor. Both of him.  
**Rated**: PG-13  
**Notes**: Cliffhanger supplied by Branwyn. 

**Timepiece**  
by LizBee

**Three**

Romana led Rose through the liner's drab corridors. They passed a few people, fellow passengers and staff. Everyone ignored them.

"Wait," Rose hissed. Footsteps were approaching. Heavy boots. Rose unsealed the door of what she hoped was an empty storage locker, and pulled Romana inside.

They held their breath as the footsteps passed.

"How can we get off the liner?" Rose whispered. "Steal an escape pod?"

"Escape pods are conspicuous and almost impossible to pilot. It will have to be a shuttle."

"Sounds good."

"Of course," Romana added, "a shuttle will certainly be guarded."

"Times like this," Rose said, "and they don't come often, I ask myself, _what would my mother do_?"

"And?"

Rose straightened her spine, smoothed her hair, put her shoulders back and her chest out.

"Flirt, bribe and distract," she said proudly.

"How quaint," Romana said.

"Got any better ideas?"

"In the absence of K9? No."

"Don't worry." Rose reached for the door release. "Just smile at the guards a bit. That's like a weapon anyway."

Bribery was unnecessary in the end, which was good, since they were running out of money. Flirtation and distraction, on the other hand, were maybe a bit too successful. They got their shuttle. Only the guard came too.

His name was Kev; he was a human from the Titan colony, and he was twenty-eight. He'd gone into private security after failing to get into the police. There was, he hinted to Rose, a tragic romance that had driven him so far from home. But Temnein was weird and miserable; it was always day there, and there were rumours about what went on in the admin zone beneath the markets. And now this business of seeking and snatching time travellers, and he was a pacifist at heart, and wanted to get away, maybe meet a nice girl and settle down (this was to Romana). If she wanted to, that is.

"How long have they been taking time travellers?" Romana asked.

"Oh, days. Well, a day. I mean, I heard it had happened once before. Earlier today. On another liner. On the other side of the system."

"What's it mean?" Rose asked as soon as he was distracted.

"I think they've learnt something from the Doctor," said Romana. "And now they need ... more energy." She frowned. "I took us back to a point two days before he was taken, to give us time to take the slow route to Temnein, but that whole planet is subject to massive temporal distortions. I may have miscalculated..."

"Then," said Rose, swallowing her frustration, "we'd better hurry."

"Yes," said Romana with a hint of sharpness, "I'm quite aware of that."

"Right. Sorry."

"If," Romana said slowly, "if we fail ... and we survive ... you might want to come with me." She looked suddenly shy. "I'll have to continue the search for the Key, and I'll need an assistant ... and I don't want to do it alone."

Rose couldn't think of anything worse, but at least she'd be able to get home. Probably. She shrugged and looked away.

"The Temnons have the TARDIS, too," Romana said sadly. "My TARDIS, I mean, my home. Not that they'll be able to get inside..."

"Well," said Rose firmly, "at least we'll have a way out then, yeah?"

"True," said Romana. She turned away to start preparing the beacons that would get them through Temnein's outer defences, and said no more.

They landed without incident on the outer edge of the markets. Kev shook his head.

"If I were you," he said, "I'd have gone straight in the opposite direction. Anywhere but here."

"We have business to attend to," Romana told him. "But there is something you could do for us...?"

Kev looked intrigued but wary. "Let me guess. Guard the shuttle."

Romana laughed. "_Much_ more important than that," she said, but whatever it was, Rose couldn't hear.

"Is it just me," she said as they set out for the entrance to the subterranean city, "or is the wind picking up?"

"It's not just you." Romana pointed upwards. "The time bubble is weakening. Stray seconds are leaking through. The storm is coming in."

"We're on the core of a gas planet," said Rose, looking at the storms swirling overhead.

"Yes," said Romana patiently.

"That's not good."

"No. But don't worry." Romana looked pleased with herself. "It's all in hand."

They changed into their drab technicians' disguises behind a convenient outcropping of rocks. Rose was worried about surveillance cameras, and not just because she didn't want to end up on an alien pervert's website ... or whatever ... but Romana seemed unconcerned. Which was either alien genius or blindness, Rose couldn't say which.

No one stopped them from entering the administration wing. No one gave them a second glance as they emerged from a long, carpeted corridor into the bio-cybernetics labs.

"What now?" Rose asked quietly.

"We find out where they keep their biological components," said Romana. She had looked over the computer for a moment, then got to work as if she'd been using it all her life. Rose watched her for a moment, then went to keep a look-out.

"Come on," said Romana, grabbing her shoulder. Rose jumped. "This way."

One hall, then another. A woman in a blue coat stopped and told them to fix her vid-screen, she'd been requesting an upgrade for an age, and now it wasn't working at all. Romana promised they'd get to it as soon as possible, and the woman moved on.

They passed two guards, talking between themselves.

"Between you and me," said one, "I wish they'd hurry up and integrate him. At least he'd stop talking."

Rose glanced at Romana, and dared a thumbs up. Romana nodded.

They turned down the corridor from which the guards had come. There was a plain white door at the end.

Romana pulled something from her pocket and fiddled with the lock.

Rose said, "Hey, you have a sonic--" but Romana hushed her. The door swung open.

The room was empty.

"Sorry," said a voice behind them, "were you looking for me?"

Rose and Romana turned.

"Doctor?" they said.

_to be continued_


End file.
